The Hive
by maninblack5
Summary: Amanda Ripley is rescued from the cold of space by a mysterious ship. However, her rescuer may have ulterior motives...
1. Chapter 1: Shadows and Wraiths

Chapter 1: Shadows and Wraiths

Amanda Ripley floated in the dark void of space. She had been forced to jettison herself and a Xenomorph out of the _Torrens_ airlock, after narrowly escaping Sevastopol. She was just regaining consciousness, when she saw a huge blue light appear nearby. A few moments later the light was gone, and replaced by a very, very large ship. It was at least as big as Sevastopol had been, if not bigger. Soon after the ship arrived, she saw a smaller, dart like object approaching her. The craft then flew above her, emitting a bright blue beam of light as it did so.

The next thing she knew, she standing on a small, circular platform that was positioned above a large pit. On either side of her, she could see many of the dart-like craft she had seen just a few moments earlier. She reasoned that this was the hangar bay of the large ship she had seen. The platform she was standing on was connected, on two opposite sides, to long hallways. She found it odd that, although this was clearly a hangar, there were no pilots be seen. She decided that, whoever this ship belonged to, she should try and find its crew.

As she walked down the hallway that had been on her left, she noticed that the walls, which were colored a dark purple, seemed to be organic in nature. She began to wonder if the aliens from Sevastopol had managed to get aboard this ship, somehow. It would explain why she hadn't seen any crew yet.

After another ten or so minutes of wandering through the ship, she heard a voice. It was almost human, but there was something different about it, it sounded raspier then a human voice should be.

"Hello, hello? Is anyone there?"

"I can hear you." Ripley replied. "Whoever you are."

"Ah, good, you survived. I was beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong with the transportation process."

"Who are you?" She asked. "And where am I?"

"I understand that you have questions, and I will answer them all in good time. I will start with the second one. You are aboard my ship, it is marvelous, isn't it? The story of how I acquired this vessel is quite interesting, actually-"

Ripley sighed as the voice began its story, she realized that whoever this was must like to listen to themselves talk.

"It began on earth, I had recently found a very, very old piece of technology left behind by a race known as the iconians. The device was capable of instantaneous long range transportation. I intended to use it for the purpose of exploration, however, a former…..umm…acquaintance of mine wished to use it for his own selfish purposes. So he tried to kill me in order to possess sole knowledge of that device. Having nowhere else to run, I used the device to transport me somewhere far, far away. I arrived in the middle of a grassy clearing in a forest, the planet I was on had twin moons and became quite cold at night.

Off in the distance, I caught sight of a ship, this ship in fact. Shortly after I caught saw the vessel, I heard a high pitched engine sound in the distance, followed by the sound of multiple explosions. Deciding that the ship was the best chance for me to return to earth, I began to approach it. As I did, I saw a multitude of fighters, like the ones in this ships hangar bay, in the sky above the vessel. The fighters hadn't seen me yet, so I began to approach more cautiously. When I came near the ship, I saw a group of beings with very pale skin and white hair; all of them were wearing black robes.

After I had observed them for a minute or so, ten more of these beings came out of the ship. They had the same characteristics as the ones I had first seen, but wore grey armor and facemasks. This second group joined with the black robed ones and ventured off into the forest.

Seeing my chance, I cautiously walked up to the ship and pried open the door. Fortunately for me, it was not under guard. I began to move through the ship, hoping to find the bridge so that I could take control. I ran into a few patrols, but managed to remain hidden from them.

After an hour of sneaking through the ship, I finally reached the bridge. There were five of the pale beings on the bridge, and I was forced to engage them in combat.

I quickly discovered that they were almost as agile as I was, though not stronger. They attempted to hit me with what I would later discover to be a stun weapon. Fortunately for me, I managed to get one of their sidearms and use it so stun the bridge crew before they could raise an alarm.

My next problem was learning how to fly the ship. Fortunately for me, this race appears to use telepathic interfaces to control their vessels. My race has limited telepathic capabilities, and so I was able to gain control of the ship's systems. However, a patrol passed by the bridge area and discovered my intrusion, sounding the alarm before I could stop them. I was, however, able to lock them out of the bridge before they could apprehend me. Seeing to other way to take the ship, I began to launch the ship into space. After it had risen above the planet's atmosphere and obtained a stable orbit, I deactivated life support to all decks besides the bridge. The cleanup was pain in the back. Before you call me a murderer, however, I must make you aware of the nature of this race. They literally eat humans, draining their life force with a special organ on their hand. This process is most excruciating. So, I think I did the galaxy a favor."

"Hang on, you mentioned that your race had telepathic capabilities. You aren't human, are you?" Ripley asked.

"No, I am not. I must warn you, my appearance can be…rather startling. If you wish, however, I will open the way to the bridge."

"I doubt you can be that creepy, besides, I've seen my fair share of monsters recently."

Suddenly, a door opened at the end of the hallway.

"Head through the door that just opened, the way to the bridge will be the only way you can go. I'll be waiting."

And so, after half an hour of walking, Ripley made it to the bridge…..


	2. Chapter 2: Colonial Marines

Chapter 2: Colonial Marines

Ripley cautiously approached the bridge. She wasn't quite sure if she trusted believed the story she had been told about the former crew of the ship. However, she reasoned that she had to get the bridge anyway, this ship was her only hope of ever reaching human civilization again.

Although she had lost most of the equipment she had acquired on Sevastopol, she had managed to keep a revolver with her and drew it as she approached the entrance to the bridge.

As the door opened, she noticed, to her horror, that the only thing standing on the bridge was one of the creatures she had seen on Sevastopol.

As she began to turn to run from the bridge, the doors behind her closed and locked, leaving her trapped. She saw the creature turn towards her, and a moment later heard a sigh.

"I tried to warn you, you know. I would have been perfectly fine with simply continuing to talk via the intercom, but you told me that I couldn't possibly look THAT horrendous."

She realized with a shock, that the voice was definitely coming from the alien, even though its outer mouth remained completely still.

"Stay back!" She said, as she pointed the revolver at it.

"I assure you, if I wanted to kill, maim, or otherwise harm you, I would have done so already. Judging by your reaction, I think we both know that your gun won't harm me. You have encountered my species before, I assume?"

Ripley only nodded, but lowered the revolver. The creature was right, it wouldn't do much good.

"It would be rather….difficult to explain my vocal capabilities. But I can for certain that I am the only one of my kind that can speak in a way comprehensible to humans."

It paused for a moment before continuing.

"However, I get the feeling that you would rather spend as little time near me as possible. Don't worry, I will return you to a human world, but we need to wait."

"Why?" Ripley managed to ask.

"This ship is capable of faster than light travel, but doing so damages the organic hull. As such, periodic stops are need to ensure that the ship doesn't break apart. I estimate that we have about another hour or so before we can enter hyperspace again. In the meantime, you may wander the ship as you please."

As he finished speaking, the alien opened the doors that lead to the rest of the ship. Ripley wasted no time in leaving the bridge.

"Just don't touch anything!" The alien called from behind her.

She ran as far from the bridge as she could before sitting down to think. There was no way she could trust this thing to take her back to a human world. Even if it wasn't going to kill her, it could have some other plan in mind. Whatever game it was playing, she decided that the alien wouldn't be playing it for long.

As she started to look for the ship's armory, she heard a voice over her headset.

"This is Sergeant John Sheppard with the United States Colonial Marines calling unidentified vessel, please respond."

She breathed a sigh of relief, if the marines were able to board the ship, there was a good chance that they would be able to kill the alien. She attempted to respond, but her headset didn't have the range to reach the colonial vessel.

"Alright, well, if anyone can hear us, we're going to try and board your ship through the hangar bay. If you could not shoot us down, that would be much appreciated. We should be there in about five minutes."

Ripley got up and hurried towards the hangar bay. She had to warn them about the alien, otherwise they wouldn't stand a chance.

When she arrived, she was pleasantly surprised not to see any sign of the alien, she hoped it hadn't heard the transmission. Shortly after she reached the entrance to the hangar bay, the doors opened and a group of five marines entered. The lead marine, a middle aged man with combed, brown hair spoke to her first.

"If you don't mind me asking, Ma'am, who are you? We didn't expect to see any humans on board this ship."

"My name is Amanda Ripley, I was brought onto this ship after the destruction of Sevastopol. The station had been compromised by an alien parasite, this ship has one of the same creatures on board."

"I'm Corporal Evan Lorne, my squad was sent here to check on Sevastopol, there had been no communications from the station in a while. I guess the station being destroyed would explain that."

Another man stepped out of the hangar bay, he looked only a little older than Lorne, but his hair was black and his bangs were messier.

"Listen up men, we've got new orders. Command wants us to take the ship and bring it back to Earth if possible."

The man turned to Ripley before speaking again.

"You said there was an alien on the ship, are you sure there's only one?"

"I've only seen one so far, but there might be more."

"Lorne, take the rest of the men and find the bridge, we need to get control of the ship. I'll follow after I secure our ship."

Lorne and the rest of the marines left to try and find the bridge.

"Sorry about that, I'm John Sheppard, pleased to meet you." He said, shaking Ripley's hand.

"I need to lock the car, and then I'll follow Lorne, you want to come along? I think it would be safer than leaving you here alone. Can you handle a gun?'

"I've had to learn."

"Good" He said, as he handed her a pulse rifle.

"With any luck, Lorne will have killed the alien by the time we get to the bridge, but better safe than sorry."

Sheppard went back into the hangar bay, locked the ship's door with a password, and mounted a camera nearby.

"This way we can see if anything's trying to get into the ship. Now, let's go hunt some bugs."

With that, Sheppard and Ripley began their trek through the vast interior of the ship…..


	3. Chapter 3: Relativity

Chapter 3: Relativity

"Lorne? Damn it Lorne, respond!"

Sheppard was beginning to worry, he hadn't been able to reach Lorne via radio for ten minutes now. He had no doubt that Lorne and the rest of the marines could handle themselves, but something was jamming their transmissions. According to the intelligence reports, the bugs shouldn't be able to do that.

"So, uh, do you know who built this ship?" He asked Ripley.

"Apparently, it was built by a race of aliens that sucks the life force from humans. I don't know much else about them."

"Who told you that? Earth has been exploring the galaxy for a long time now, and we've never seen a ship like this, or aliens like that."

"Well, actually the-"

She stopped speaking as she and Sheppard heard sounds of gunfire in the distance.

"That must be Lorne's group, hopefully they just killed the alien."

The pair quickly made their way to the source of the noise, only to find the room empty, except for five pulse rifles discarded on the floor.

"Damn, something must have gotten the drop on them. Couldn't be the bug though, no blood."

"They might have just ran from whatever was attacking them, in which case, they couldn't be far." Ripley said.

"They had to have gone through that door-"Sheppard pointed to another door on the opposite end from where they entered. "-otherwise we would've seen them on our way in."

They went through the door that Sheppard had pointed out. On the other side was a huge, glowing yellow orb, which seemed to be floating above a small metal cylinder.

"Do you have any idea what that is?" Sheppard asked, pointing towards the device.

"I can answer that." Said a voice. Neither of them could see who was speaking, and the voice seemed to be coming from all around them.

"Who's there?" Sheppard called.

A second later, the door opened, and the same alien that Ripley had seen on the ship's bridge entered.

Sheppard immediately fired his weapon, but the alien evaded the whole clip. It then disarmed both Sheppard and Ripley in one swift tail motion.

"Now, now, is that anyway to greet your pilot?"

"Ripley, am I going crazy or is that thing…-"

"Talking?" Ripley finished.

"Yeah, that."

"I assure you, you are both quite sane." The alien said.

"What did you do with Lorne?" Sheppard asked.

"I set him and the rest of the marines adrift in your ship. I activated their distress beacon, and I estimate that they will easily have enough supplies to last until their rescue."

"How did you get into our ship?"

"It wasn't difficult, I fed your camera a static image of the area, and hacked the ship's control panel. Your password was password, you really aren't the careful type, are you?"

"Why did you let us stay on board?" Ripley asked.

"I miscalculated. I was under the impression that there were only five marines, evidently I missed one. Which means that I'm stuck with you. I can't simply put you in one of the fighters, they wouldn't have sufficient life support."

"And why do you care?"

"I'm not a monster, Sheppard, I abhor needless death and would rather settle this with words then guns."

"And for that, we only have your word."

"I admit that my race is not known for being particularly amicable. However, given your situation, I suggest that you trust me. I am the only one here who can fly the ship."

"I wonder why I don't believe that." Sheppard said sarcastically.

"If you don't believe me, then by all means, try to fly it. I'll even show you to the bridge. And, to alleviate any fears of traps you may have, I'll walk in front of you."

On the way to the bridge, the alien explained the device they had seen.

"That device was an alternate reality drive. I got it from a race known as the Yautja. They are a race of hunters, and were using the device to search other realities for worthy prey. The captain of the ship I got it from had no use for it anymore. I intended to use it in order to find answers. I realize that my race is a blight upon the galaxy. But after intensive research, I have concluded that they could not possibly have evolved naturally. Some other race created them, likely for use as a weapon. In the reality I come from, a race known as the ancients apparently stopped whatever race created mine, from spreading their weapon across the galaxy. As such, only one colony of my species exists in my reality. For some reason, the ancients in your reality were unable to contain my species. During my travels I have located a number of planets that are infested with my people."

Before he could continue, they reached the bridge.

"Alright, in the center of this room are the ship's controls. Simply put your hands on the console."

Sheppard did so, but nothing happened. Ripley tried as well, and had the same results. The alien smirked and walked up the console. As soon as he put his hand on the controls, the console lit up.

"See? I'm your only pilot. The race who built this vessel use telepathy to control them. My race has limited telepathic capability, so I can operate this ship, albeit with some mental strain."

"So you were right, but that doesn't mean we have to trust you." Sheppard said.

"I have had a thousand chances to kill you already. I haven't done so, isn't that worth something?"

"So, you're willing to fly us back to a human world, free of charge?"

"Yes, I want to get you both out of my nonexistent hair as quickly as possible. The trip will take a while. As I explained to Ripley, this ship must take periodic stops during a trip. Otherwise the hull will break apart. There is food and water in the cargo bay for about five days. I estimate we will need three before we reach a human colony. So, I hope you're both ready for a road trip."


	4. The Prisoner: Part 1

The Prisoner: Part 1

The alien strode, slowly, into room. The wraith used this area for cocooning humans so that they could be fed upon later. He had turned it into an impromptu prison cell. Although he wanted the humans to trust him, he had omitted a few details from his story that he told to Ripley, mainly because they wouldn't reflect well upon him in the human's minds.

"I heard gunfire. Having complications?" a voice said as the door opened.

"Just a few minor setbacks, nothing you need to be happy about."

"Why are you down here? You certainly don't need anything from me."

"I need someone to talk to. Despite that fact that I imprisoned you down here, I don't want to fight you. However, I know you too well to let you out."

"I helped you take this ship! You betrayed me as soon as we had control."

"You expected me to betray you. You really weren't cautious enough."

"You're trying to blame your betrayal on me?"

"No, I'm just giving you advice for next time. If there is a next time, that is."

"Do you intend to keep me here forever?"

"I want to let you out, but I can't do that just yet. My current mission is far too important to take any risks. And you can be a tricky devil sometimes. But, there are times when you aren't that bright. Why did you follow me? You could have stayed on earth and likely never seen or heard from me again."

"I couldn't let you cause trouble elsewhere in the galaxy. Besides, you are my mistake, I intended to correct my worst error."

"Why was it a mistake? Am I really that bad? When did I ever do anything truly evil?"

"Kidnapping Skye came close."

"Oh, that. I know how that looked, but I only intended help both her and I find answers."

"You could have just asked her to come with you."

"She would have declined. Few humans can get past my appearance. And then there's the way that the rest of my race….utilizes humans. You may be out of place, but at least you aren't seen as a monster by most people. Despite that, we aren't too different, you and I. The rest of your kind ostracizes you, all three of them. All one thousand or so of my species will rip my throat out if I try and get close to them."

"I'm overcome with tears."

"I need to go, the ship will soon be ready to enter hyperspace again, and I don't want to keep the humans waiting."


	5. Chapter 4: The long Night

Chapter 4: The Long Night

Ripley crouched besides the bridge console, preparing it disassemble it. Sheppard had left to see if he could locate any of the ship's vital systems, she had elected to stay on the bridge in order to try and figure out how to operate the ship without telepathic capabilities. She was about to take the console apart when she heard heavy footsteps behind her, and nearly jumped when she heard the alien's voice.

"That won't get you anywhere. In fact, you would probably only succeed in breaking the ship's controls, rendering it inoperable. I have something I need you to do, follow me."

Seeing no choice, Ripley followed the alien. It lead her to what appeared to be a makeshift security office, with a single chair and camera monitor.

"We are about to enter hyperspace, when we do so, it will take a great deal of power. This will, in turn, put us in some measure of danger. Behind that door is a being which, if it leaves that room, could quite easily kill you. I will be piloting the ship, the bridge is just down the hall. If you notice that ANYTHING has changed on that monitor, run to the bridge and tell me. Even if you think you're imagining things, tell me anyway. It is imperative that you report even the slightest change. Do not ask what is behind that door, I can't tell you. Just trust me, on this if on nothing else."

With that, the alien left the room. Leaving Ripley with a sense of dread and apprehension.

An hour later, her attention span was failing, and she was beginning to doze off, when she saw a brief movement on the camera. She widened her eyes, and looked closer, nothing had changed, but there had definitely been movement earlier. As she was about to get up and head to the bridge, the door opened behind her, she cautiously turned around…..

And saw John Sheppard standing in the doorway.

"Relax, it's just me. So, what's Todd having you do?"

"Todd?"

"Well, we need to call him something, don't we?"

"I guess. Anyway, he told me to inform him if anything changes on that monitor. Apparently there's something behind that door that could kill us all."

"Well, I've got news for you, there's something on the bridge that could kill us, and it's flying the ship."

"Whatever's behind that door, even that thing's afraid of it."

"Are you saying we should let it out?"

"Not at the moment, but if our pilot turns on us….."

"Good idea, but let's hope it doesn't come to that."

They said nothing further about the subject for a while. Nothing else of not happened, however, and the ship dropped out of hyperspace safely. The alien entered the camera room shortly after

"Change of plans, you might get back to a human colony sooner than I thought. I'm going to land the ship on a nearby planet, in my reality, the humans designated it P3X-595. If I'm right, it might hold a way to get you to earth."

The ship shook as it descended on the planet, but landed without any serious complications.

They emerged from the ship, and found that they had landed in a forest, the ship had crushed quite a few trees when it touched down.

They followed the alien through the forest in silence for a while, until they came to a river, when the alien spoke.

"No matter how thirsty you get, do not drink the water on this planet. It won't kill you, but it will remove all your social inhibitions, and I really do not need to deal with that."

"So, it basically makes you drunk?" Sheppard asked.

"More drunk then I bet anyone you know had ever been. Except you wouldn't have a hangover after you recovered, just a lot of regrets."

They continued for another few minutes, until they reached a mountain range. They then followed the alien into a valley between two huge mountains that reached beyond the clouds. In this valley, was a huge metal ring, standing upright. Near it was a small control console with a large red button in the center.

"Ah, good, the Ancients built the stargates in this reality." The alien mumbled. "This device is capable of transporting you to earth via a wormhole. After I dial it, I will go back to the ship, bring a dart out here, pick you up, bring you through, and then dematerialize you somewhere close to a town or city. Assuming, of course, that there is a stargate in Antarctica in this timeline."

"This plan seems riskier than just flying to a human planet, why can't we stick to that plan?" Ripley asked.

"Who knows what complications we could run into doing that? We could be attacked by other alien races, or run into any sort of natural complication. Trust me, this plan is much better."

"You say 'trust me' a lot. That's not particularly reassuring." Sheppard said.

Before they could talk further, the gate began to dial and a strange ship appeared in the sky above them.

"What the…." Sheppard began to say.

The alien started running on all fours back towards the ship and shouted:

"Back to the ship!"

Sheppard and Ripley ran after him, and reached the ship ten minutes after the alien did. They had just reached the ship's bridge when it started to take off.

"Who was flying that ship?" Sheppard asked.

"The race I got the alternate reality drive from, the Yautja. They are a hunter race, and likely dialed the stargate to stop us from escaping."

Their ship exited the atmosphere, and then began to shake again.

"They're firing at us, I'm preparing weapons systems-"

The alien suddenly fell to one knee and began to scream, and clutched the sides of its head as its face seemed to distort. After a few moments, it stopped screaming and panted heavily as it rose back to its feet.

"Go…..go to the room with the alternate reality drive, there should be a large red button on the front of the device, press it."

"I'll go." Sheppard said as he ran towards the device.

"What was that, just now?" Ripley asked after Sheppard left.

"A side effect of using the alternate reality drive. There must be another me somewhere in this reality, therefore the matter that makes up my body is being rejected by this reality. When Sheppard activates the drive, it will transport us back to my reality, it will allow us to escape the Yautja. We will return to your reality later."

"Wait, won't the same thing that just happened to you happen to us if we go to your reality?"

"Entropic cascade failure takes time to occur-"

The alien was cut off as a bright glow engulfed the bridge…..


	6. Chapter 5: Primal Hunt

Chapter 5: Primal Hunt

After the light subsided, so did the shaking. Evidently, their ship was no longer under fire from the Yautja. Soon after, Ripley got a radio message from Sheppard.

"Hey, uh, we got a problem down here. I think you both need to see this."

Both Ripley and the Alien hurried down to the alternate reality drive, only to find it a smoldering wreck.

"Damn, the Yautja must have got a lucky shot just after Sheppard activated the drive." The alien commented.

"Can it be fixed?" Ripley asked in dismay.

"Remember, I didn't build this. I acquired it from a Yautja vessel. But to answer your question, no, I do not believe it can be fixed. We will need to find another one."

"How long will it take for what happened to you to happen to us?"

"Hmm…I'd estimate about a day or two. However, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a Yautja ship, I know the location of one of their hunting planets. However, I'm not sure how far away we are. The alternate reality drive likely transported us back to the point in space where I originally used it, so the hunting ground shouldn't be that far."

He suddenly stopped speaking and turned his head towards an empty corner of the room. Suddenly, his tail shot forward towards the corner, impaling something, which shortly became visible.

It was a humanoid being, about seven feet tall, it's skin was a very light brown and looked leathery. Its face was covered by a metal facemask, and it wore armor on various parts of its body. Curiously, it had what appeared to be dreadlocks for hair.

"That-"the alien said. "-is a Yautja. It must have boarded the ship before we took off."

The Yautja quickly pressed a button on its armband, and in response, the alien began to run towards the bridge.

"Get out of here, it's going to blow itself up!"

They made it to the bridge, and the alien began to franticly work at the controls.

"I'm going to try to reinforce the section of the hull surrounding that area, the blast from those self-destruct devices is very, very powerful."

They waited, but there was no sound, no explosion.

"Hmm, odd." The alien said after a few minutes. "It should have gone off by now. I'm going to go see what happened. I'll lock the bridge door."

The alien left, and ten minutes later returned carrying two large rifles, made of some grey material that neither Sheppard nor Ripley recognized.

"The self-destruct device was used to simply vaporize the Yautja, instead of causing a destructive blast. This can only mean one thing: There are more of them on board. Take these, hold the bridge."

"Where are you going?" Sheppard asked.

"The Yautja frequently hunt my species, and as such have gotten used to fighting them hand to hand. I intend to exploit that. If the door opens, fire, even if you see nothing in the hallway. The Yautja have mastered cloaking technology, as you have previously witnessed."

The alien then left the bridge, Sheppard and Ripley got cover behind the bridge consoles and pointed their weapons at the doorway…

A Yautja hunter peered at its prey from the darkness. Long had they bred and hunted the serpents because of their natural abilities. But this one, this one seemed different somehow. No human should be able to operate wraith technology, and yet, something had made the hive ship move. Even more of a concern was how the humans had survived with one of the serpents on board. It was of no consequence, however, he would find out later. The serpent was simply standing in the hallway, waiting for something. If this serpent was different from most, he simply gain that much more honor when he defeated it. The hunter readied his blades, prepared for a brutal fight to the death with the creature, one which he intended to win. He leapt out of hiding, twirling his staff in front of him…

And was promptly hit by several blasts from a wraith stunner. As he fell to the ground, he attempted to reach his self-destruct device, but the serpent leapt forward and tore it from his arm. Before he fell into unconsciousness, he wondered how the serpent had learned to use technology, and hoped that his comrades would have better luck then he had. The last thing he saw was the serpent removing the plasma caster from his helmet, and smiling triumphantly.

Back on the bridge, the door opened, and Sheppard ducked just in time to avoid a lethal barrage of plasma. Ripley fired her stunner towards the doorway, but none of the shots connected with their invisible foe.

Ripley looked towards Sheppard just in time to see the Yautja decloak behind him, its wrist blades poised to stab Sheppard in the back.

"Look out!" She called to Sheppard as she fired her weapon at the hunter. It ducked and avoided the blast, and then fired its plasma caster at her, hitting her weapon and vaporizing it.

Before the hunter could react, Sheppard turned around, and fired his stunner, hitting it square in the chest. As it fell backwards, Sheppard quickly grabbed its gauntlet, which contained the self-destruct device off of its arm.

They both breathed a sigh of relief when the hunter stopped moving.

"Thanks." Sheppard said, after it was over.

"No problem." Ripley replied.

"We should probably take whatever weapons it has, I'm not sure how long the stun effect will last."

"Good idea." Sheppard said, as he removed the hunter's mask. He quickly recoiled upon seeing its face spider-like mouth.

"That's one ugly-"

He was interrupted by the bridge door opening again, this time, the alien walked through, wearing a Yautja wristband.

"Ah, good, you got one. Put on the mask, it might enable you to see cloaked Yautja."

With some reluctance, Sheppard put on both the mask and the armband. After he found out how to activate the mask, he was able to see heat signatures, even through walls depending on the setting. Suddenly, he fired the plasma caster at the alien, who ducked, the shot then hit a Yautja, who had been cloaked behind him.

"I knew you'd duck." Sheppard said.

"Sure you did." The alien grumbled as they disarmed the Hunter.

"I would wear one of those, except it doesn't quite fit." The alien said as he regarded the Hunter's mask.

The alien then rushed to the controls as a warning light began to flash. Over the communications console, they heard an incoming message:

"This is Colonel Stephen Caldwell of the Earth Ship Deadalus, please respond."


	7. Chapter 6: Talking with oneself

Chapter 6: Talking with oneself

"This is bad, very bad." The alien sighed after playing the message again.

"Bad for you, maybe, but not for us. Once they send a boarding party, we can hitch a ride back to their ship." Ripley said in reply.

"You forget, we're in my reality now. Earth doesn't have alternate reality drives. You will both suffer and die from the effects of entropic cascade failure within a day. Unless you plan to kill your counterparts in this reality, that is. All of that is beside the point, however, because we are using a ship that was built by an enemy of earth. They won't board the ship, in fact, they'll probably just destroy it. Which raises the question, why haven't they done so already?"

It walked over to the main control console and scanned the system.

"Ah, that explains it. They weren't hailing us, the message was directed to a yautja vessel. Apparently, the power surge caused by the destruction of our alternate reality drive has activated the Yautja cloaking device I installed."

"You said they were hailing a Yautja vessel, does every Yautja ship have an alternate reality drive?" Ripley asked.

"I'm not sure, I've only been able to see the interior of one. Boarding the ship is out of the question, as long as the Daedalus is in the area. Unless….."

"Unless what?" Sheppard asked.

"I'm going to hail the Daedalus and leave the comms channel open. Sheppard, I need you to talk to them, stall for as long as you can. Ripley, follow me."

Sheppard was left alone on the bridge as the view screen activated, showing the face of a bald man, older than Sheppard, sitting on what he assumed to be the command chair of the Daedalus' bridge.

The man looked at the view screen, confused, for a moment before speaking.

"This is Colonel Stephen Caldwell, commander of the Daedalus, to whom am I speaking?"

"Sergeant John Sheppard, Colonial marines, if that means anything around here."

"Could you please explain to me why I have man that looks and sounds exactly like you on my ship?"

"It's….complicated. I'm not exactly from around here."

"Could you hold on a moment, please?"

Caldwell turned away from the view screen and addressed his communications officer.

"Tell Sheppard to report to the bridge immediately."

The officer relayed the message to the flight deck, and within a few minutes, Lieutenant colonel John Sheppard entered the Daedalus' bridge.

"Reporting as ordered sir."

Caldwell simply turned the view screen back on. Allowing the Sheppard on the Daedalus to see his alternate counterpart.

"Well, this is better than the last time I met myself." The Daedalus Sheppard said.

The other Sheppard waved at the view screen.

"Hi…Me? I guess?"

"Weird, isn't it?"

"A little, but given what I've seen today, not that weird."

"Speaking of that, where are you? We aren't detecting any other ships in the vicinity, our crab headed friends aside."

"I'm in a ship, big one. Purple-ish on the outside, looks organic, bay full of fighters that remind me of the paper airplanes I used to make as a kid. It's cloaked, apparently."

"What you describe sounds like a wraith hive ship." Caldwell said. "To our knowledge they aren't equipped with cloaking technology. Not to mention the fact that, unless you have wraith DNA, you aren't supposed to be able to fly one."

"It's a long story." The alternate Sheppard said.

"You'll have time to tell us about it later. For now, can you shut down the ship's cloak?"

"Probably, if I can find it. This thing is pretty big."

"The power core would be a better target, once it's gone, we can beam you over." The Daedalus Sheppard suggested.

"Good idea, I'll shut it down as soon as I can."

The alternate Sheppard left the hive's bridge, and began to search for the ship's power core.

Soon afterwards, the Yautja ship hailed the Daedalus.

"We demand to know the reason for this delay, human. We require the information you possess as soon as possible." The Yautja captain said.

"The delay may have some bearing on that. Apparently, there is a cloaked hive ship in this area. What race in the Pegasus Galaxy has cloaking devices?" Caldwell replied.

"Hmm…..you believe that the Wraith were able to take the cloak from our missing vessel, and install it on a hive ship?"

"Exactly. However, the hive ship may no longer be under wraith control. If you're willing to wait a while longer, we might be able to find the hive's exact location."

"We have a way of detecting our own cloaking devices. Leave this to us, human."

The Yautja Captain then closed the communications channel and ordered his ship to cloak and approach the Hive.

Meanwhile, the alternate Sheppard was approaching the hive ship's power core room, when he remembered something. The alien was nowhere to be seen, so now was the perfect time to see what was behind the door that Ripley had been watching earlier. The power core could wait a minute or two.

Unfortunately, after he opened the door to the monitored room, a Yautja hunter suddenly decloaked and hit Sheppard in the chest with the back of his right hand, knocking him to the floor. As the hunter was preparing to decapitate him, Sheppard managed to get his senses back and rolled out of the way just in time to evade the hunter's wrist blades. Sheppard then quickly drew his stunner and fired it at the hunter. The blast connected, but only caused the hunter to stagger for a moment. Sheppard continued to fire, and after five more shots, the hunter collapsed into unconsciousness. A moment later, so did Sheppard.

Meanwhile, the alien and Ripley were approaching the hive ship's hangar bay.

"Won't the Daedalus see us if we fly out there in one of these?" Ripley asked.

"With any luck, they will be too distracted by the presence of another John Sheppard. If all goes well, we should be able to board the Yautja mother ship with one of the darts."

"If the Daedalus doesn't see us, the Yautja will for sure."

"Irrelevant, the Yautja ships don't really have much in the way of anti-fighter defense. Besides, they'll be watching the Daedalus closely for signs of treachery. From what I can tell, the Daedalus was meeting with the Yautja here in order to negotiate an alliance against the wraith. It is unfortunate that we need to appropriate the Yautja vessel, but I'm sure that humanity can defeat the wraith without them."

"Why do we have to steal their ship? Couldn't we just ask them for a ride back to our reality?"

"They might oblige, but on the other hand they might very well kill you."

"You could do the same at any time."

"We're wasting time. Do you want to have your matter rejected from reality?"

"I-"

"That was a trick question. Now, I need to show you how to fly one of these things."

It didn't take long for the alien to instruct Ripley on the basic dart controls. And soon, they were both flying towards the location where they believed the Yautja mother ship to be…..


End file.
